1st Edition

The Routledge Companion to Media and Class

    330 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    330 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This companion brings together scholars working at the intersection of media and class, with a focus on how understandings of class are changing in contemporary global media contexts.



    From the memes of and about working-class supporters of billionaire "populists", to well-publicized and critiqued philanthropic efforts to bring communication technologies into developing country contexts, to the behind-the-scenes work of migrant tech workers, class is undergoing change both in and through media. Diverse and thoughtfully curated contributions unpack how media industries, digital technologies, everyday media practices—and media studies itself—feed into and comment upon broader, interdisciplinary discussions. They cover a wide range of topics, such as economic inequality, workplace stratification, the sharing economy, democracy and journalism, globalization, and mobility/migration.



    Outward-looking, intersectional, and highly contemporary, The Routledge Companion to Media and Class is a must-read for students and researchers interested in the intersections between media, class, sociology, technology, and a changing world.

    1. Introduction: Media and Class in the 21st Century. Erika Polson, Lynn Schofield Clark, and Radhika Gajjala
    2. Section 1. Class and Mass Media

    3. Working Class Bodies in Advertising. Matthew P. McAllister and Litzy Galarza
    4. Faux Class: Hybridity and Confusion on Reality TV. June Deery
    5. Migrants Meet Reality Shows: The Class Representation of Non-Koreans in Reality Shows in Korea. Hun-Yul Lee

    6. Participation in Reality Television: Performance, Class and Dance Talent Shows. Annette Hill & Koko Kondo
    7. Love, Sex, Money: Gender and Economic Inequality in HIV Edutainment Programming in Kenya. Renee Botta
    8. Section 2: Class in Interactive Digital and Mobile Media

    9. Horse Racing, Social Class, and the Spaces of Gambling. Holly Kruse
    10. Keep it Classy': Grindr, Facebook and Enclaves of Queer Privilege in India. Rohit K. Dasgupta
    11. YouTube-Based Programming and the Saudi Youth: Constructing a New Online Class and Monetizing Strategies. Omar Daoudi
    12. Mobile Technology and Class: Australian Family Households, Socioeconomic Status and Techno-Literacy. Will Balmford & Larissa Hjorth
    13. Hanging Out at Home as a Lifestyle: YouTube Home Tour Vlogs in East Asia. Crystal Abidin
    14. Young People, Smartphones and Invisible Illiteracies: Closing the Potentiality-Actuality Chasm in Mobile Media. Sun Sun Lim & Sze Ming Loh
    15. Media, Class and Childhood in South Asia. Shakuntala Banaji
    16. Section 3: Labor in Digital/Media Contexts

    17. The Roots of Journalistic Perception: A Bourdieusian Approach to Media and Class. Sandra Vera Sambrano & Matt Powers
    18. The Aspirational Class ‘Mobility’ of Digital Nomads. Erika Polson
    19. Technologies of Recognition: The Classificatory Function of Social Media in Mobile Careers. André Jansson
    20. The Gig Economy and Class (De)Composition. Todd Wolfson
    21. Digital Hierarchies of Laboring Subjects. Kaitlyn Wauthier, Alyssa Fisher and Radhika Gajjala
    22. Between ‘World Class Work’ and ‘Proletarianised Labor’: Digital Labor Imaginaries in the Global South. Cheryll Ruth Soriano & Jason Vincent Cabañes
    23. Section 4: Media, Class and Expressions of Citizenship

    24. Class Distinctions in Urban Broadband Initiatives. Germaine Halegoua
    25. ‘Second-Class’ Access: Homelessness and the Digital Materialization of Class. Justine Humphry
    26. Marginality and Social Class in Youth Media. Mohamed El-Marzouki
    27. Reconsidering Mobility: The Competing Logics of Information and Communication Technologies Across Class Differences in the Context of Denver’s Gentrification. Lynn Schofield Clark
    28. Class Interplay in Social Activism in Kenya. Job Mwaura
    29. Postscript

    30. The Vivid Particularities of Class and Media. David Morley

    Biography

    Erika Polson is Associate Professor in the department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies at the University of Denver, USA. Her research focuses on digital media and mobility in global contexts. She is author of Privileged Mobilities: Professional Migration, Geo-social Media, and a New Global Middle Class (2016).



    Lynn Schofield Clark is Professor and Chair of the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies and Director of the Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media at the University of Denver, USA. She is co-author most recently of the award-winning, Young People and the Future of News: Social Media and the Rise of Connective Journalism (2017). Clark serves as President of the Association of Internet Researchers.



    Radhika Gajjala is Professor of American Culture Studies and Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University, USA. Her most recent book Digital Diasporas: Labor, Affect in Gendered Indian Digital Publics was published in 2019.